Mediator's Night
by Reboo
Summary: Continuation of Untitled which now has a title. Noin waits to hear from her brother.
1. Default Chapter

Mediator's Night

by Reboo

email: rlw1985@hotmail.com or lngwp@oz.zzn.com

~

"The mediators' life is the hardest life of all. For patience is a virtue few possess and to be able to use it wisely is a gift, and at times a curse to those who possess it. Mediators take the good and the bad and compromise. They see they shades of gray and act upon them, while the rest run away."-r.l.w

~

"A car, a car," Snr. Antoinne yelled , storming up and down the room.

"I hear you dear, I really do," his wife said trying to calm him down, but her own anger at her son's request wasn't allowing her to do so very well. "We just can't give it to him. This time we will say no. 2,000 dollars that's it, no more." she stated.

"He needs to learn his lesson, and he will this time. Garibaldi is making us look weak, and we can't have that. I won't have that." Antoinne stated harshly and confidently and turned to face his wife with a stern look. He drew his hand down his face letting it rest on his chin. He stared at the ground then looked up. "We need to put a stop to this silly behavior of his."

Lucrezia turned and peeked over the top of the couch in the adjoining room. Her parents had only come to the same conclusion ten times if not more, actually most likely more. Not yet had they acted upon it.

She tilted her head allowing her bangs to completely cover her face as she tried to get a better look at them. Her father and mother looked strained, and drained. Everuthing was wearing them down. Of course it didn't help any that they were both in their mid to late 40's. Between the Alliance and her brother they just did not seem to be able to hack it.

Lu sighed and shrunk back down into the couch, her parents did not know she was up and she had no desire to get caught. She was waiting for her brother, Garibaldi, to log onto his e-mail. She stared patiently at the laptop screen on the coffee table in front of her. Lucrezia was all too use to being mediator between her brother and parents, it was no fun job on most occasions, but she enjoyed her routinely talks with her brother without the formalities and talk of the current depressing situation.

Currently she was trying to weasle him into letting her manage his money but so far he had not consented. He probably would not let her either. His wife had control of his money more or less and she did all the talking more or less she was a control freak, and she treated her brother badly. That is why Lucrezia did not like her that much, but she was able to retain her anger and ill feelings and act quite civily towards her,. Even though on more than one occasion his wife had apparently stolen cash from the house and she had definitely tried to get Lucrezia to do her work. Lucrezia remained calm, cool, and collected. Besides if she was not calm the house might just burn down around her.

On several different occasions Lu had taken off from the house not wanting to deal with her in laws, she may have liked her brother, and his kids. His wife and her first child however were repulsing whiney brats that took to getting her littler sister in trouble and she just couldn't stand it. When she left though it could cause some major problems, she was the unspoken diplomat of the house, even when she had no experience in an area she was still asked for advice, and she was always the one getting called in to settle disputes.

She rolled over on the couch and grabbed the afghan laying on the back, she wasn't supposed to touch it but as long as it got put back, no one would notice or at least she hoped so. She wrapped the blanket tightly around her and snuggled back into the couch. Still no word from her brother, but at least her parents had gone quiet. Quickly she stuck her head over the side and peaked back, the lights were turned off in the adjoining room, they must have gone to sleep. 'Oh well,' she sighed. 

She looked at the grandfather's clock in the corner by the fireplace and read the time, '11:45', her brother should have been on by now. She reached over and disconnected from the internet and began to shut the computer down, he should have been on at 11, that's when they normally talked. Most likely however his wife probably would not allow him access to his own computer.

The computer went black and she closed the lid, and yawned. She was tired. After today's mess with Garibaldi's wife demanding that they buy her a car Lucrezia's brain was fried, it had taken every ounce of goodness in her to keep her from attacking the woman. Soon hopefully very soon her brother would be rid of his wife. 

In a weeks time however she would be enroute to Germany, for a nice break from the harsh realities of being in her house. Treize and his family had invited her for the summer, and she had most readily accepted even though she did not know quite why Treize had invited her. He still had not told her, just said that there was an old friend of her's staying with him she would probably like to see.

That definitely had her confused but as she felt, oh well, it was a chance to get out of the house without having to worry about anything, as long as she could get the present matter cleared up. "Goodnight," Lucrezia whispered lazily to no one at all, and fell asleep on the couch, she had needed the rest much more then even she had thought.

A/N: Aha the fourth part in a series I seem to be doing, if you can call it a series. This one follows after Peace breeds War, and yes I did use Lady Dante's title suggestion for it seeing it was previously untitled. I hope you enjoyed, and pleeeeaaaaase review. And yes I do realize it was a sort of deceiving title, but I could not think of anything better.


	2. new

Blessings in Disguise

By Reboo

Email: rlw1985@hotmail.com or lngwp@oz.zn.com

A/N:  Since Everyone's been calling all my little short stories a series, would you guys like me to post everything under one name and just have chapters, or simply have a name for the series.  As always thankyou for the reviews, I really appreciate it. Also I'm sorry for how long this took my carpul tunnel is acting up.  By the way I really don't like this title so if you have a suggestion please fire away.

"Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk."  

~Chinese Proverb

Lucrezia sat quietly down at the table and giggled as her three year old little sister made faces and wiggled in her chair.  Her older sister was scarfing down her food, so she could go get packed up to spend the night at her friend's house.  IT was just her, her two sisters, and her dad tonight.  Lu's mother had gone to pick up her brother's family earlier today.  They would not be home till later, and frankly she hoped they would not stay too long, actually she hoped would not stay at all.

"Here's your hot dog, and I had your crusts cut off your bread, and the bread cut into squares."  Her father said cheerily and handed Lucrezia's little sister her plate, and Gerry immediately dug into her bread first, then her got dog, pretending that the hot dog was a ship, and her moth a landing strip and she zoomed  her food into her moth making plane noises.

"So, how is it."  He said turning to Lucrezia as he sat down with his own food.  Tonight he had cooked, and it was a brisket and vegetables and potatoes in a barbecue sacuce.

"It's delicious dad," Lucrezia said after spooning a mouthful in, she always ate with a spoon when she could, and the food really was very good. Her dad had made a barbecue sauce by combining two of his rib barbecue sacuce recipes together, and it tasted great.

"You're almost done," he said turning to Lu's older sister.

"Mmhmm," the girl answered as she shoved in the last mouthful.  "You said you would bring me right." She asked getting up.  Her father nodded, and Lu's sister took off to get ready to go.

Not fifteen minutes later Lu's mother, brother, his two kids, wife and her kid walked in.  They had arrived earlier then expected, and hour and a half early to be exact.  Lucrezia groaned as they entered and her face went from happy to grim in less then a second.

"Hello," her mother said coming in and hanging up her coat.  Lu's nephew, Michael zoomed by her and she realized quickly where he was going.  After the Christmas tree.  They still had there's up, and Michael had not been here for Christmas.  She dashed away quickly and followed him, sure enough he had gone to the Christmas tree and was playing with some of the ornaments.  Lu smirked and sighed, she would be doing damage control, and clean up duty tonight.

Michael started picking ornaments off the tree and handing them to her.  She groaned, after seven hours of him being in a car, her nephew was going to be a terror tonight, more so then normal.

Garibaldi, Lucrezia's oldest brother walked in carrying his youngest son, and put him on the floor in his car seat then left.  Lucrezia flashed her brother a smile then groaned again, more work for her to do, Michael loved to beat up his little brother.

She went over and took the cover off the baby's head and gave him his bottle to suck on which was lying in the seat with him.  Hopefully it was still good.  The baby gave her a toothless smile and started eating, so she took the second to see what Michael was up to and groaned, he was in her Christmas presents.

She left the baby in his seat, and went after her other nephew.  "Can I have that please Michael," she asked sweetly, and he looked at her then handed over the toy.  Lu went and put it up.  When she looked back over her shoulder she saw him with her finished mobile suit model kit.  He dropped it though, and she picked it up quickly, not quickly enough however as Geseppi, her sister in law's six year old son was all over her.

"Oh, cool, can I play with it," he asked trying to grab it away from her.

"No," Lucrezia said quickly as her mother came in.

"We'll turn the lights on for you Michael," her mom said walking over to the outlet.

"I'm bringing all my stuff up," Lucrezia whispered as her mother passed and grabbed all her stuff and quickly brought it to her room.

Hurriedly however she ran back down the stairs to the living room.  Geseppi, Gerri, her younger sister, and Michael were running around the rooms and hallways, then they all stopped in the kitchen and started yelling just for fun.

"It's twelve decibels in here," Lu shouted, "Lower it."

IN a couple of seconds the kids complied and starting running around.  After the kids were out her mother passed to the medicine cabinet giving her an easy explanation, "They're giving me a headache."

Lucrezia nodded in agreement, and was then met with the sound of crying.  Her mother reacted quicker however and made it to her crying sister first.

"I told you not to run." Her mother lectured.  "Now go get yourself on the couch and I'll fetch you a bottle."  Little Gerri complied to her mother's orders and lied down.

Lu followed into the living room and murmured an 'atleast you get to leave soon,' to her impatient sister by the door before entering.  

Her father was in his chair with Junior, apparently her brother and his wife had left to do some shopping.

"Can I play this computer game,"  Geseppi said coming up and getting in her face.

"No," she answered she really did not want to watch him on the computer, or even deal with him at all.

"Why not," he wined back.

"Because I said no," Lu growled she had no patience for this boy whatsoever.  "I don't want to watch you on the computer right now."  She added with a little more patience.

"That's not fair," he wined and Lu grabbed the game from his hands.  After that the evening was pretty quiet, and her pestering added family had left.

"You can do what you like now," her mom said watching them leave.  So Lucrezia hopped on the computer and played on the internet before joining her parents to watch one of their favorite movies.

The next morning was church, then after that she rushed home to try and eat lucnch so she could leave home as soon as possible before her added family arrived.  Her brother's wife had invited themselves over.

Unfortunately however she did not get out before they arrived by at least Geseppi was not with them.  For the next three hours she watched her nephew Michael then at the soonest chance she bolted, and the 45 minute walk to her friends house was well worth it.  When she was allowed to spend the rest of the day there with her adopted family.

She spent four hours there playing video games, watching movies, and playing volleyball.  It ended all too soon for her however as her friends dad came up and said she would be late for church if she was not there with in ten minutes.

Silently Lucrezia cursed as her friend's dad brought her to the church.  Her stomach knotted as she entered and she felt suddenly sick.  Quietly she slipped into the back, and took the seat next to her sister.

"You're late," Lu's sister whispered as the rest of the congregation sang.

"I know why didn't you call there and remind me."  Lu hissed back.

"We called twice, no one picked up."  Her sister answered back.

"Lucrezia paled.  "How mad are they?" she whispered.

Her sister simply grimaced.  This was not good news.  So Lucrezia kept herself quiet during the rest of the service, her queasy feeling never really leaving.

At the end as they filed out Lu's parents came up behind her.  "So you did come," her father said, she simply turned her head and smiled at them.  She could not believe they were not mad at her, she definitely had not expected this, it was like a small blessing in disguise.


End file.
